The difference between Music in the Baroque Era and the Romantic Era

Running Head : BAROQUE AND ROMANTIC MUSIC

Baroque and Romantic Music : A Comparison

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Baroque and Romantic Music : A Comparison

Introduction

Baroque was a term that Portuguese used to describe a deformed pearl - barrocco . In his many travels , Charles de Brosses described the elaborately decorated fazade of the Pamphili palace as Baroque . An anonymous music critique described the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau 's Hippolyte et Aricie (1733 "barocque " owing it to the music 's cacophony of sounds and capricious and extravagant modulations , repetitions , and metrical changes (Grout

Palisca ,2001 ,p .251

Baroque refers to music prior to the classical era . Baroque music uses heavy polyphonic themes . Chords are in a hierarchical , functional tone scheme . Baroque music uses longer lines and stronger rhythms . Baroque music has more emotional intensity than Renaissance music . Baroque music uses elaborate ornamentation in each composition

Many significant events influenced the emergence of the Baroque period The seventeenth century was the beginning of the modern age . Human awareness that began in the Renaissance continued to develop . The Copernican theory was completely accepted after 1600 (Baroque , 1994 Religion played an important role in the development of the period . The Roman Catholic Church promulgated a canon at Council of Trent (1545-63 demanded that representational arts in church context should communicated to the illiterate rather than the well informed . The populist concept on the function of ecclesiastic art was the main influence of how the Baroque period prospered in the arts . Iconography during that period was direct , simple , obvert and dramatic

The scientific revolution continued with the invention of the telescope microscope and thermometer . Boyle 's theory of gases , law of electricity and magnetism , laws of optics were only some the scientific theories developed at that time . The new age of the seventeenth century , the medieval philosophy of scholasticism could no longer support the advances in science and transition in religious beliefs (Lavine 86

The Romantic period was marked with the new developments as a result of the Enlightenment ' in the 18th century . The period was thought to be a resistance against prevailing social and political traditions of the Enlightenment period . The Romantic period emphasized the use of emotions as a source of artistic expression and inspiration . Most of the art that developed during this period showed nationalism and expressed intense criticisms on autocratic rule . The Age of Enlightenment placed emphasis on rationalism while the Romantics focused on emotions and imagination The French Revolution also inspired artists to create works that exemplify nationalistic fervor . The Romantic style used color and the specific expressions in each of the subjects of the painting and evoked untold emotional appeal

The Romantic period liberated the musician . Although composers would submit to traditional conventions and techniques in music , the possibilities offered by a new philosophy drove creativity to new heights as they explored new realms of sound (Grout Palisca , 2001 br

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Comparison of the Two Forms

Italians dominated the music scene in from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries . Just as new philosophies dominated...